Rates of suicide, murders and heart attacks will rise as the recession continues and rising UK unemployment could mean at least 290 extra suicides, the BBC reports.

The predictions are based on an analysis in the Lancet of economic changes and death rates in 26 EU countries over 30 years.

The study by experts at Oxford University and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine shows that a 3% rise in unemployment is linked with a 2.7% rise in heart attacks among men aged 30-44 and increases of 2.4% in murders and suicides in people under the age of 64.

According to the British Chambers of Commerce, the worst of the recession is over. But it adds that 10% of the workforce may still suffer unemployment my mid-2010.

A homelessness prevention officer who was sacked after he allegedly told a woman with an incurable condition her illness was down to the fact ‘she did not believe in God’ is set to take Wandsworth Council to an employment tribunal, reports the Wandsworth Guardian.

Duke Amachree, 53, was dismissed from his post at the council after they received a letter of complaint from the woman.

According to the council, the father of two saw the complainant after she came into the council’s offices on 26 January this year to ask for housing advice.

Amachree told a national newspaper he was unfairly sacked by the council and said he only had a brief conversation with the woman, during which he suggested that she turn to God because doctors may not have all the answers.

Wandsworth Council strongly denied Amachree’s account and stated that the complainant was subjected to a 30-minute ‘barrrage’ where she was told that the only reason she was ill was because she did not believe in God.

Amachree claims that the council’s decision to dismiss him is a breach of his human rights.

A council spokesman confirmed that a member of staff had been dismissed for gross misconduct following a disciplinary hearing.

The Bank of England is today set to announce plans to expand its ‘money printing’ programme by a further £25bn, taking the total to £150bn, in an effort to force banks to step up lending to consumers and businesses, reports The Times.

The announcement is expected as the bank’s Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) unveils its interest rate decision – which is expected to remain at the historic low of 0.5% on Thursday.

The bank unveiled its £150bn quantitative easing (QE) programme in March, when it pledged to inject an initial £75bn into the economy by creating money, used to buy government bonds and corporate debt to encourage lending to the rest of the economy.

Today’s £25bn top-up will bring the bank’s scheme to the £150bn ceiling agreed with the Treasury.